Miles of footprints on the journey to a healthy life

Category Archives: Goals

Yesterday I sat down with Nikki and went over my goals for this next round of training.
Yep, I’m back at it for 12 weeks. She keeps checking to see if I really want the whole hour.
Go big or go home I suppose. Continue reading →

The last half of PT was nothing short of amazing.
We had a blast doing Tabata, running and skipping hills, sweating, lifting, losing.
The best part is that I actually started seeing the scale move down. (Fishface saw scale results from jump.)
A loss for me for the first half of training would be a matter of a half pound here and there.
Then, Nikki gave me the homework to hit the Arc three times for 45 minutes in one week.
At that point, I think I’d only been on that death machine between 15 and 20 minutes before my lungs exploded.
On Sept. 12, I completed my first 45-minute Arc workout. The second – Sept. 14 and the third on Sept. 16.
I freaking did it.

And that is when everything changed.

The Arc and I took our relationship from “it’s complicated” to “madly in love.”
I’m guessing all that Arc sweat shocked my body into finally shedding pounds.
Throughout the rest of September and all of October, I continued to combine the Arc with strength training, along with core/ab work, and (I pray I’m not jinxing things) the scale has made me quite happy. I’ve nearly blitzed through a whole decade of weight in the last few weeks.

The results haven’t just appeared because of the gym time. It’s all about what I put into my body, as well.
I’ve been using My Fitness Pal every day to track everything I consume.
Logging daily and sweating for nearly 1.5 to 2 hours every other day is what it takes for me to see results.

Until Nikki, we’d never had a personal trainer.
I am happy to say the whole experience served us incredibly well. It gave us the motivation and desire to make this a lifestyle.
The only regret I have is not getting a Nikki in my life before now.
But everything happens when it’s supposed to, I like to think.

Ever watch The Biggest Loser and see contestants puking in buckets?
Yep, I’d be that girl.
Last Wednesday’s KILLER workout didn’t actually make me vomit, but I sure was scanning the room for the nearest trash can. There were moments when I was sure it was going to happen.
But like a boss, I swallowed the puke feeling away and kicked some serious butt.
Nikki really turned the heat up with this hour. I hadn’t been sore since our first workout, but my abs and shoulder blades were all on fire the next day.
Here’s what she devised for us:

Week 4

Yeah, that picture does no justice. I wish someone had taken video of what this torture looked like on us.
It was a hot mess.
We started on the elliptical, which for the record I only love when I am unable to do the Treadie. I greatly dislike it.
When Nikki showed us each move we’d do during the circuit portion, I had a thought about each station. Then, when she said do it “5 times” I already wanted to leave. ;0)

In my head:
Ball bounce: yeah, right into my face
Front kicks: got this all day. I do those in my sleep
Cross punches/side lunges: hmm, ok, I can probably do that
Bicycle crunches: UHHHHH NO!!!! I hate you, bicycles!
Rest: YES!!
Repeat: NO!

How it played out:
Ball bounce: took me four circuits to bounce the ball hard enough and gain confidence I wouldn’t bounce the ball into my head
Front kicks: (the irony) one of the hardest stations. Standing there and kicking with the same leg for 30 seconds, five times is hard on the abs. Trust! This station=nausea.
Cross punches: Well, hello shoulder blades. It’s been a minute since I’ve noticed you. Five pound weights never felt so heavy. Still, a doable station until round 5. Round 5 was my limit.
Side lunges: I’d really rather not look in the mirror when I do these. Yikes.
Bicycles: This station was 30 seconds and I praise Jesus it took us 10 of those seconds to get down on the mat into form. LOL. 20 seconds of these bad boys and I wanted to die. Bicycles mean vomit! They hurt the abs SO good.
Rest: We had one minute to stay on the floor and cry or hurry and get water. Our choice. Fastest minute ever.
Repeat: Circuit 1 through 3 was all about keeping my vomit down. Didn’t think I would make it through 4. Seriously. When I finished 4, I rejoiced like it was the last one. I told Nikki I can do anything one last time. Knowing 5 was the last time, I was pumped!
Bottom line: HOLY CIRCUIT TRAINING!

I love Nikki for allowing us to sub out flutter kicks for the bicycles during the last two circuits. I’ll do a flutter whatter all day, before I ever do a bicycle again.

Oh and before all this torturous goodness, we had our weigh-in.
The Fish lost another two pounds. He is rocking this -ish all day long. I’m very proud of him!
And I posted a 0.6 loss. I was excited, since there’s been none of that.
I’ll take a loss, no matter how small, to the moon!

Hopefully this week will be good to us, too. I’m already praying for no bicycles.

Woo, this last week, y’all! SO much to write about.
It has been one of the BEST weeks of my life, so expect a full recap soon.

But first let me say a special thank you to my pal Kelly over at No Thanks to Cake for sending her sweet readers my way. Hello to all those who have stopped by and read around. I do hope you will follow along. 🙂

Tonight is our third personal training session.
Last week’s session was a bit killer. There were new ab workouts called bicycle something or others (names…) and side taps. Yeah, I hate the bicycle thingies. Supe Dupe!
The word of last week that made me weak, quite literally: ROPES. Those jokers are hardcore and I’m pretty terrible at them. The peeps on Biggest Loser make that -ish look easy.
The overall workout was a strength training delight. The cardio and ab work was where I fell apart.
She gave us homework to get in at least two more full body sessions (aka cardio and weights) and one cardio day.
We accomplished a great Friday night full-body session (we even did lunges y’all…voluntarily), and tackled just cardio Monday night. So, two – better than none. I don’t really count last night’s stroll around the ‘hood, though the Fish kicked butt and had a sweaty, good time.
I do count my hitting the mat pretty consistently over the last week. (post to follow)
And I wonder if that’s the reason I haven’t been as sore as I was after our first workout.
Feeling a bit under the weather this morning, so I’m hoping I feel better for tonight’s slaughtering.
Honestly, I just pray that scale reflects a loss tonight, since we had a pretty good week overall with both eating and working out.

NSV though, I found a whole batch of old jeans in the closet Monday that now button. Some haven’t fit since 2007-08, so woot on that! I take pride in the NSVs, but I also need that scale number to come down. My doc won’t care that I can fit into jeans. She reads charts, not jean sizes.
Another NSV, throughout the last week I managed to defeat (for now) the defeatist attitude I suffered through the week before when there were no shortage of sweet treats and terrible eats. Healthy food choices were made all along the way this week, and sweets were mostly banished. WIN!
Here’s to all the NSVs!

It’s Monday, y’all and instead of whining through it, I’m forcing myself to use it as a clean slate, a shiny new friend who will serve as a buffer between me and all the poor decisions I made for my body this weekend.

In all honesty, this whole last week was just rough for me mentally. It’s been one of the hardest weeks as far as mind-body awareness goes. Even with the training session Tuesday, I seemed to have no desire to eat well last week. Not sure what that’s about. The entire week consisted of fries every day…kid you not. Even if it was paired with a salad, Chick Fil A fries hit the calorie bank hard. And the entire weekend just blew. Pizza, cupcakes and Mexican food Friday night, hot dogs/chips Saturday followed by a sweets coma from a fun trip to a new bakery (mildly worth it), then a bday celebration (no, not mine) full of vegetables (hey, I tried with a portabella club) and beer (well, there goes that) and Sunday was…well… Sonic.

Do I even need to admit there wasn’t a single workout since the sorry excuse of the one we did Thursday?

Now, I don’t know if there is something else going on with me or if the caloriefest of the last week and the inactivity are to blame, but I was EXHAUSTED yesterday. Like back to bed before breakfast AND napped two hours before bed kind of exhausted. My body felt lackluster, worn down and just overall blah. Could be the late nights, the beer, the sugar. I dunno, but holy moly do I need some water, vegetables and exercise in my life.

And this pattern cannot continue. If it does, that will mean we are wasting our money and time with the training. We should be logging our calories (which we did at least do that, even with all the poor choices) and hitting the gym three times a week.
So, this last week was a fail.
And we’re leaving it there. I refuse to bring that negativity into this new week. It is what it is, it was what it was. Today is Monday and it’s a new day – not to mention it’s still early into the new month. Things can look much different this time next month.

On an even more serious note, this indulgent beer and sugar kick I’ve been on is officially done. I know better, yet still think I can do such things. I cannot. Really. After a sweet treat Saturday, I instantly felt badly. Headache was trying to set up camp and I was tired. Done. No cookie is worth that feeling.
So, I’m challenging myself to one sweet a week. Considering I’m really supposed to have no sweets a week (doc’s orders), I’ll baby step my way there. A’ wean, wean, wean (cheerleading anyone? lol)
And the beer…it’s sugar in my mind. Acts just the same in my body. So, no more weekends of that.